Portal:Feminism

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The Feminism Portal

Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern societies are patriarchal—they prioritize the male point of view—and that women are treated unjustly in these societies. Efforts to change this include fighting against gender stereotypes and improving educational, professional, and interpersonal opportunities and outcomes for women.

Originating in late 18th-century Europe, feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, run for public office, work, earn equal pay, own property, receive education, enter into contracts, have equal rights within marriage, and maternity leave. Feminists have also worked to ensure access to contraception, legal abortions, and social integration; and to protect women and girls from sexual assault, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Changes in female dress standards and acceptable physical activities for women have also been part of feminist movements.

Many scholars consider feminist campaigns to be a main force behind major historical societal changes for women's rights, particularly in the West, where they are near-universally credited with achieving women's suffrage, gender-neutral language, reproductive rights for women (including access to contraceptives and abortion), and the right to enter into contracts and own property. Although feminist advocacy is, and has been, mainly focused on women's rights, some argue for the inclusion of men's liberation within its aims, because they believe that men are also harmed by traditional gender roles. Feminist theory, which emerged from feminist movements, aims to understand the nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles and lived experiences. Feminist theorists have developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues concerning gender.

Numerous feminist movements and ideologies have developed over the years, representing different viewpoints and political aims. Traditionally, since the 19th century, first-wave liberal feminism, which sought political and legal equality through reforms within a liberal democratic framework, was contrasted with labour-based proletarian women's movements that over time developed into socialist and Marxist feminism based on class struggle theory. Since the 1960s, both of these traditions are also contrasted with the radical feminism that arose from the radical wing of second-wave feminism and that calls for a radical reordering of society to eliminate patriarchy. Liberal, socialist, and radical feminism are sometimes referred to as the "Big Three" schools of feminist thought.

Since the late 20th century, many newer forms of feminism have emerged. Some forms, such as white feminism and gender-critical feminism, have been criticized as taking into account only white, middle class, college-educated, heterosexual, or cisgender perspectives. These criticisms have led to the creation of ethnically specific or multicultural forms of feminism, such as black feminism and intersectional feminism. Some have argued that feminism often promotes misandry and the elevation of women's interests above men's, and criticize radical feminist positions as harmful to both men and women. (Full article...)

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The Tahirih Justice Center is a United States-based non-governmental organization that serves immigrant women and girls who are fleeing from gender-based violence and persecution through pro bono direct legal services and social and medical service referrals. Tahirih helps women who are attempting to escape from such abuse as female genital cutting, domestic violence, human trafficking, torture and rape. The organization also conducts public policy initiatives designed to achieve legislative change for women fleeing from human rights abuses, to highlight problems faced by immigrant women in the United States, and to end the possible exploitation of mail-order brides by international marriage brokers. The organization is named after Táhirih, an influential female poet and theologian in nineteenth century Persia who campaigned for women's rights. Tahirih is a Baháʼí-inspired organization, although its clients and employees vary widely in ethnicity, religious identification, and nationality.

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Credit: Dorothea Lange

Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange's 1936 photograph of Florence Owens Thompson and her daughters in Nipomo, California, became the most famous image of the Great Depression in the United States. It is one of the classic photographs of the 20th century, and is now an icon of resilience in the face of adversity. In the 1930s, the FSA employed several photographers to document the effects of the Great Depression on the population of America. Many of the photographs can also be seen as propaganda images to support the U.S. government's policy distributing support to the worst affected, poorer areas of the country.

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In this month

May 1892 – Publication of "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (pictured), a prominent American writer, and utopian feminist who argued for women's economic independence in Women and Economics
16 May 1929 – Birth of Adrienne Rich, award-winning lesbian American poet and feminist
20 May 1806 – Birth of John Stuart Mill, British philosopher whose essay The Subjection of Women argued for the equality of women
21 May 1970 – First Women's studies program established in the United States at San Diego State College after a year of intense consciousness raising, rallies, petitions, and unofficial classes
24 May 1990 – Judi Bari Day, honoring the American ecofeminist and labor leader who worked to protect the redwood forests of Northern California

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If divorce has increased by one thousand percent, don't blame the women's movement. Blame the obsolete sex roles on which our marriages were based.

— Betty Friedan

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Sarah Churchill (née Jenyns), Duchess of Marlborough (1660 - 1774) rose to be one of the most influential women in British history, as a result of her close friendship with Queen Anne of Great Britain. Sarah's friendship and influence with Princess Anne was widely known, and leading public figures often turned their attentions to her in the hope that she would influence Anne to comply with requests. As a result, by the time Anne became queen, Sarah’s knowledge of government, and intimacy with the Queen, allowed her to become a powerful friend and a dangerous enemy, the last in the long line of Stuart favourites. In an age when marriage was principally for money, not love, Sarah enjoyed an unusually close relationship with her husband, John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough, whom she married in 1677. Sarah acted as Anne's agent after James II, Anne's father, was deposed during the Glorious Revolution; and she promoted her interests during the rule of James's successors, William III and Mary II. When Princess Anne came to the throne after William's death in 1702, the Duke of Marlborough, together with Sidney Godolphin, the first Earl of Godolphin, rose to head the government, partly as a result of Sarah's friendship with Anne. A patron of the Whig party, Sarah tirelessly campaigned on behalf of the Whigs, while also devoting much of her time to building projects such as Blenheim Palace. She died in 1744 at the age of eighty-four.

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... that after dying in her daughter's arms in an asylum in 1897, Maria Trubnikova was remembered as the "heart and soul" of feminist activism in Russia?
... that Margareth Rago seeks to establish a methodology for what she calls "feminist science"?

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More did you know

...that Japanese painter Uemura Shoen (work pictured) was the first woman awarded Japan's prestigious Order of Culture?
...that Clare Winger Harris was the first woman to publish short stories under her own name in science fiction magazines?
...that Lois DeBerry is the first African-American woman speaker pro tempore of the Tennessee House of Representatives?

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The following are images from various feminism-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Cover of WSPU's The Suffragette, April 25, 1913 (after Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, 1830) (from History of feminism)
Image 2Matilda Joslyn Gage (from History of feminism)
Image 3Betty Friedan 1960 (from History of feminism)
Image 4Women's Liberation march in Washington, D.C., 1970 (from History of feminism)
Image 5Frances Cobbe (from History of feminism)
Image 6Wealthy Chinese women with bound feet (Beijing, 1900). Foot binding was a symbol of women's oppression during the reform movements in the 19th and 20th centuries. (from History of feminism)
Image 7Female members of the Australian Builders Labourers Federation march on International Women's Day 1975 in Sydney (from International Women's Day)
Image 8Suffrage parade in New York, May 6, 1912 (from History of feminism)
Image 9Florence Nightingale (from History of feminism)
Image 10Gloria Steinem at news conference, Women's Action Alliance, January 12, 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 11Catharine MacKinnon (from History of feminism)
Image 12John Neal (from History of feminism)
Image 13Margaret Sanger (from History of feminism)
Image 14Bessie Rayner Parkes (from History of feminism)
Image 15Clara Zetkin (left) and Rosa Luxemburg (right) in January 1910 (from International Women's Day)
Image 16
  Official holiday
  Holiday for women
  Non-official holiday
(from International Women's Day)
Image 17Marie Stopes (from History of feminism)
Image 18The Nineteenth Amendment (from History of feminism)
Image 19First edition print of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (from History of feminism)
Image 20bell hooks (from History of feminism)
Image 218M 2020 in Spain (from International Women's Day)
Image 22The vandalized Concepción Feminist Mural in Spain, which was vandalized on International Women's Day 2021. (from International Women's Day)
Image 238M 2018 in Pamplona (from International Women's Day)
Image 24Huda Shaarawi, founder of the Egyptian Feminist Union (from History of feminism)
Image 25Women on the street celebrating International Women's Day in Cameroon (from International Women's Day)
Image 26Irena Krzywicka (from History of feminism)
Image 27Sylvia Pankhurst (from History of feminism)
Image 28Nellie McClung (from History of feminism)
Image 29Lucy Stone (from History of feminism)
Image 30María Elena Oddone holding a banner, on International Women's Day in 1984 in Argentina. The banner says "No to motherhood, yes to pleasure". (from International Women's Day)
Image 31Simone de Beauvoir (from History of feminism)
Image 32Germaine Greer in June 1972 (from History of feminism)
Image 33Elizabeth Cady Stanton (seated) and Susan B. Anthony (from History of feminism)
Image 34Ida B. Wells (from History of feminism)
Image 35Yellow mimosa is the symbol of IWD in Italy as well as in Russia, Ukraine and many other ex-Soviet Union republics (from International Women's Day)
Image 36Author and scholar Helen Kendrick Johnson opposed women's suffrage. (from History of feminism)
Image 37A veil-burning ceremony in Andijan on International Women's Day in 1927. (from International Women's Day)
Image 38Camilla Collett (from History of feminism)
Image 39An Antimonumenta, installed in Mexico City on International Women's Day 2019, as photographed the day after. The circle part says "In Mexico 9 women are murdered daily" and the cross part says "Not one more!" On the opposite side, the Antimonumenta reads "We demand a national gender alert", and in the central part "No + Femicides". (from International Women's Day)
Image 40Christine de Pizan presents her book to Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. (from History of feminism)
Image 41Emily Davison (from History of feminism)
Image 42Board of directors of "Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah", a women's rights association in Tehran (1923–1933) (from History of feminism)

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This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Feminism}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options.

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Alice Manfield - Guide Alice, Mt Buffalo, c1900-30, SLV
Alice Park - Records of the National Woman's Party
Alice Paul (1915) by Harris & Ewing
Angela Davis in a half-length portrait by Bernard Gotfryd - crop
Anne Dallas Dudley LOC
Avril de Sainte-Croix - Restored, cropped
Bertha Lutz 1925
Cabinet Card of Sojourner Truth - Collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture
Convicts Lunatics and Women! Have No Vote for Parliament, ca. 1907-1918
Dr. Caroline Spencer 275029v
Ethel Smyth
Frances Benjamin Johnston, Self-Portrait (as "New Woman"), 1896
Fredrikke Mørck
George Charles Beresford - Virginia Woolf in 1902 - Restoration
Henrietta Rodman from the George Grantham Bain Collection
Henry Mayer, The Awakening, 1915 Cornell CUL PJM 1176 01 - Restoration
Hester Jeffrey
Hubertine Auclert 1910
Iris Calderhead
Joy Young Rogers outside the White House
Lucretia Mott, signed photo, by F. Gutekunst
Mabel Vernon, c. 1917, by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Marguerite Durand 1910 - Restoration
Marie Stopes in her laboratory, 1904 - Restoration
Mary Garrity - Ida B. Wells-Barnett - Google Art Project - restoration crop
Millicent Fawcett
Mrs. Crystal Eastman Benedict by Edmonston, Washington, D.C.
Mrs. Lillian Ascough, chairman of the Connecticut branch of the Woman's Party
Mrs. Pauline Adams 147002v
Portrett av Gina Krog (6276081582) - Restoration
Poster by Anna Soós Korànyi for the Seventh Conference of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance
Ray Strachey restored
Sojourner Truth, 1870 (cropped, restored)
Victoria Claflin Woodhull by Mathew Brady - Oval Portrait
Voltairine de Cleyre (Age 35)
We Can Do It! NARA 535413 - Restoration 2